Chip savings app - is it worth it?

garyelder

I’ve got chip but I like Tandem at present 3.50% instant saver

stambridge

Band7 said:

stambridge said:

stambridge said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

stambridge said:

I liked the sound of this and great interest rate so I downloaded the app yesterday and opened a savings account. That part was very easy but cannot do anything else now. To deposit it says I have to link a card, there is no other option. I try to link a card and bank but my bank is not listed so it cannot be done. I know my bank (virgin money) support open banking but are not listed by chip so I cannot proceed. Also I cannot see any account number or sort code so cannot deposit any other way. I have contacted customer services but no response so far after almost 24 hours. 

From Chip's support pages:

We support the following banks through our Open Banking system:

• Bank of Scotland

• Barclays

• Danske

• First Direct

• HSBC

• Halifax

• Lloyds Bank

• Monzo

• Nationwide

• Natwest

• RBS

• Revolut

• Santander

• Starling

• TSB

• Ulster Bank

Which banks we can connect to is determined Truelayer's capability to provide a stable and secure connection, and whether the bank itself has an Open Banking API.

Don't try to deposit by bank transfer, it won't work and it'll take a day or so to get your money refunded.

Thanks for that but I cant anyway as cannot find any account number or sort code to transfer to. 

Finally heard back from customer service and they confirm they do not work with Virgin Money (my bank) so I have asked them to close the account. Perhaps things will change when they become more established but very limited appeal at the moment despite the good interest rates. 

It's nothing to do with how established CHIP are, and everything to do with Virgin's melange (to be kind) of IT systems. As soon as Virgin will properly enable their current account systems to work with Truelayer, Virgin can join the other 16 that happily work with Truelayer. It could be a long wait.

If Virgin is your only current account, you could consider opening a second account with one of the supported banks on the list. Having a second current account is a sensible precaution against problems with your main bank, anyway.

Thanks for the insight and interesting comments. 

stambridge

AmityNeon said:

stambridge said

Finally heard back from customer service and they confirm they do not work with Virgin Money (my bank) so I have asked them to close the account. Perhaps things will change when they become more established but very limited appeal at the moment despite the good interest rates.

You could open an account with another bank to use with Chip, which would have the added benefit of being segregated from your main banking activity if you were ever concerned with being forced to share your ongoing account history just for a savings account. Monzo/Starling would be the simplest and fastest for setup, and then just use standard faster payment transfers to/from your Virgin Money account.

Thanks for that. Appreciate the advice. 

kev1744

i also have a virgin money account and ran into this same issue when i opened a chip account.i just used a natwest account i also had. so i now transfer from virgin to natwest and then to chip. very easy really.
the issue is with virgin not with chip

allegro120

stambridge said:

stambridge said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

stambridge said:

I liked the sound of this and great interest rate so I downloaded the app yesterday and opened a savings account. That part was very easy but cannot do anything else now. To deposit it says I have to link a card, there is no other option. I try to link a card and bank but my bank is not listed so it cannot be done. I know my bank (virgin money) support open banking but are not listed by chip so I cannot proceed. Also I cannot see any account number or sort code so cannot deposit any other way. I have contacted customer services but no response so far after almost 24 hours. 

From Chip's support pages:

We support the following banks through our Open Banking system:

• Bank of Scotland

• Barclays

• Danske

• First Direct

• HSBC

• Halifax

• Lloyds Bank

• Monzo

• Nationwide

• Natwest

• RBS

• Revolut

• Santander

• Starling

• TSB

• Ulster Bank

Which banks we can connect to is determined Truelayer's capability to provide a stable and secure connection, and whether the bank itself has an Open Banking API.

Don't try to deposit by bank transfer, it won't work and it'll take a day or so to get your money refunded.

Thanks for that but I cant anyway as cannot find any account number or sort code to transfer to. 

Finally heard back from customer service and they confirm they do not work with Virgin Money (my bank) so I have asked them to close the account. Perhaps things will change when they become more established but very limited appeal at the moment despite the good interest rates. 

If I'm not mistaken, once you closed Chip account you can't open it again.  

pinos2007

Am I correct in what I’m reading on chip, they charge a small fee every time you make a deposit into the easy access savings account,

whitehartal

pinos2007 said:

Am I correct in what I’m reading on chip, they charge a small fee every time you make a deposit into the easy access savings account,

No, you're not correct.

stambridge

pinos2007 said:

Am I correct in what I’m reading on chip, they charge a small fee every time you make a deposit into the easy access savings account,

No they do not charge for standard use of the savings account. You only get charged if you set up “auto-save” where they use AI technology to automatically save money from your linked bank account to your savings account.  You have to opt in for this service so normally there would be no charges. 

pinos2007

stambridge said:

pinos2007 said:

Am I correct in what I’m reading on chip, they charge a small fee every time you make a deposit into the easy access savings account,

No they do not charge for standard use of the savings account. You only get charged if you set up “auto-save” where they use AI technology to automatically save money from your linked bank account to your savings account.  You have to opt in for this service so normally there would be no charges. 

Thanks for that, this is we’re I was getting mistaken, I was going to set up a set amount each month to be moved from linked account into chip which it then states it would charge 25p.

to get round this I presume I just make a deposit myself monthly?

masonic

pinos2007 said:

stambridge said:

pinos2007 said:

Am I correct in what I’m reading on chip, they charge a small fee every time you make a deposit into the easy access savings account,

No they do not charge for standard use of the savings account. You only get charged if you set up “auto-save” where they use AI technology to automatically save money from your linked bank account to your savings account.  You have to opt in for this service so normally there would be no charges. 

Thanks for that, this is we’re I was getting mistaken, I was going to set up a set amount each month to be moved from linked account into chip which it then states it would charge 25p.

to get round this I presume I just make a deposit myself monthly?

Yes, it's best to make manual deposits via Open Banking (i.e. don't use Autosave and don't fund using a debit card, as both of these come with a cost - either a fee or lost interest).